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Orlando, Atlantic City, Vegas, etc. Skyscrapers | ThrillCorp

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
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Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

I mean.... 650 ft. .... holy ****.
 

KoasterEv

Roller Poster
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

This thing just keeps getting better. So stoked to hit Florida next summer!
 

Snoo

The Legend
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

I'm going to Florida if that is true.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
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Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

650 feet? That's... umm... impressive.

*puts into the Nonsensical-to-Sensible unit converter*

Almost 200 meters?!?

Wow. That's really something. And 95 mph is 255,360 furlongs per fortnight. This thing will be really speedy.
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

^xD that last conversion is amazing! Hahahaha.

But I'll join in with the generic 650ft thing....

Wow, 650ft? That's really something. Like really scarily something. 283ft is the highest I've been on Hurakan Condor.
 

steel

Mega Poster
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

650' is taller than Fury 325 and Leviathan stacked on top of one another. That's a height I would expect from a skyscraper. It's actually taller than the tallest building in most states. You will literally be falling off the tallest building in Orlando (4th-tallest in Florida if Wikipedia is correct).
 

elephant58

Hyper Poster
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

Is there a maximum limit to how tall a drop tower can be? As in, is there a maximum height where it will kill you, no matter what brakes, or other safety features you have?
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
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Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

elephant58 said:
Is there a maximum limit to how tall a drop tower can be? As in, is there a maximum height where it will kill you, no matter what brakes, or other safety features you have?

Well... as long as you've got brakes, the fall wouldn't harm you. After all, terminal velocity is a thing, and decellerating down from that wouldn't be much of a problem - you've got a very tall tower to mount brakes on. It's just a matter of starting early enough with the braking.

So if anything, the height itself would be the dangerous part. Let me just link to an excellent blog that explores that option...
We must have to disregard engineering issues, by the way. It might be feasible to build a drop tower some two kilometres tall, if mounted inside some Eiffel-tower-like structure made of high-grade steel, but for death to be guaranteed, you'd have to go higher than that. Maybe some kind of active structure would be able to reach those heights, but in practise, you wouldn't manage to build high enough to kill riders. Let's just assume the tower stays upright via the use of magic or something.

It seems that at a height of approximately two kilometres (over flat land, if you started at the bottom of a valley it'd be less of a problem), the wind would really pick up, temperatures drop, and you'd probably get frostbites on exposed skin. Though, a well-dressed parkgoer with a ski mask could probably survive that rather comfortably.

Four kilometres. Now oxygen deprivation would become a bit of a problem. Mountain climbers regularly go higher, though, and you'be sitting still in a seat, which is an activity that won't consume or require that much oxygen (that is, unless you're hyperventilating as a result of height anxiety, though by hyperventilating, you'd effectively breathe in more oxygen and get your required dose at the cost of some frostbites inside your mouth).

Eight kilometres. Commonly known as the "death zone". On Everest, this is where climbers have to pass the frozen bodies of less fortunate tourists. The temperatures require special clothing. There isn't enough oxygen in the air to sustain the body - the oxygen content of the air is less than the one your blood needs to stay useful, meaning that breathing effectively yields a net loss of oxygen. Even sitting in a seat, relaxed (and wondering when the heck this thing is going to stop - at this point you've been sitting there for half an hour or more), would be exhausting. You'd be higher up than most continental flights, the wind would tear your clothes to pieces if you opted for the cheapest Chinese knock-off variants, and eventual lightning bolts might hit you from below. The sight of your less physically fit co-riders dying would also be bad for morale, putting additional strain on your body. Also, since you're not moving, but sitting still, blood circulation in your body isn't very good. You'd start to lose toes and fingers around the 4-5 kilometer-mark, and higher up your nose, genitals and limbs in general would also freeze to the point of gangrene. It'd take a while for that to kill you, though, the drop in core temperature and lack of oxygen would be a problem long before any infected limbs.

Any higher than eight or nine kilometers, the result would be the same. At this point, you'd be dead no matter what, from frost and oxygen deprivation (or, again, fear of heights). Might as well drop back down. On the way, depending on the aerodynamic properties of the car, you'd reach a speed of some six or seven hundred kilometers per hour. That's 4-5 times faster than the tower proposed for Florida. Our tower, however, is forty times taller, so even though you'd require the braking strip to be many times longer than for conventional rides (16 times, I think, assuming the same rate of decelleration), the tower is plenty tall enough.


But what if you had a pressurized, oxygen-supplied cabin for the passengers?


Well, then you could go as high as you wanted. As we established, braking is no problem. The Apollo capsules had a velocity of 30,000 kph upon atmospheric reentry, and decelleration didn't kill any of those astronauts. Actually, such a high drop tower could in practise be a space elevator, which could be useful for bringing stuff into orbit without the use of rockets. Or, well, "stuff". The design of our cabin would only be useful to transport amusement park guests.

Also, you'd only be able to manage one trip on the ride, at most, during a park stay of conventional duration. And the queues would be horrible.
 

elephant58

Hyper Poster
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

^^Thank you for that well-informed post. Funnily enough, I've seen that link before, in a book somewhere..... :)
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

Whilst the height will undoubtedly be terrifying, I've always found the big drop towers to be quite underwhelming compared to the small, more powerful drop towers.

Det trumps Condor like a mother ****.
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

So the ride has been updated. Again.
This time, it has more elements to make for an even better ride experience including an approximately 190* stall(like Wicked Cyclone), an outside overbank turn, and the end has changed quite a bit as well(unfortunately, there is no more Top Hat. :( ). Here's a video of the offride/POV:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysa0qb2oZg[/youtube]
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

I'm glad that top hat has been removed, felt like it killed the pacing and looked really out of place.
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

There are still several things I don't like about this and depending on the restraints/train design some elements could be vile. Overall I think it's fairly exciting though.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

When you are redesigning your roller coaster - #SignsYouAreNowhereCloseActualConstruction

Great to see the new layout, though I don't know how much the new elements will add to the layout. There are only so many ways to flip, right? :wink:

I am just hoping this project gets off the ground and sees actual construction - then we will really have something to talk about!
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

Now they have announced the addition of SkyFly, a 600 foot tall/1500 foot long zipline, to Skyplex.
It's official, folks. When the $300 million Skyplex development opens with the Skyscraper, SkyFall and SkyPlaza, it will be joined by the new 600-foot zipline attraction: SkyFly.
Skyplex developer Joshua Wallack shared with me the name of the latest thrill ride that will take guests as high as the top of the Skyscraper tower and let them zip about 1,500 feet down to the SkyPlaza on the corner of Sand Lake Road and International Drive.
Wallack, managing principal of Wallack Holdings LLC, announced the zipline attraction at the March 11 State of I-Drive much to the audience's delight.
Last week, he revealed plans for SkyPlaza, an open-air promenade planned for the I-Drive development. That will be anchored by a 10,000-square-foot Perkins Restaurant — the largest in the world to date.
In February, Wallack announced the SkyFall attraction, a 450-foot drop tower, and last year he announced the Skyscraper polercoaster, which will give riders a unique view of International Drive from 570 feet in the air with banks, loops, corkscrews and the rest.
Wallack also is overseeing the development of Mango's Tropical Cafe Orlando on International Drive.
It's been quite the busy time for Wallack and Skyplex, which is scheduled to open in 2017.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2015/03/orlandos-skyplex-developer-reveals-name-of-new.html
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

600 foot zipline over International Drive? I want it now. Just build the building and throw the wire down! :p

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

Hyde said:
When you are redesigning your roller coaster - #SignsYouAreNowhereCloseActualConstruction
You mean like Maverick? Oh... wait.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: I-Drive Orlando | Skyscraper| US Thrill Rides

Lofty said:
Hyde said:
When you are redesigning your roller coaster - #SignsYouAreNowhereCloseActualConstruction
You mean like Maverick? Oh... wait.
Except in that case, the roller coaster was already constructed. The reprofile only delayed opening by 18 days.
 
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